File photo of trucks around Coutts on Saturday, January 20 2022. (Photo supplied by Jake Zacharias)

By LNN Staff

Coutts mayor frustrated with convoy, but “no problems” with protestors in village

Jan 31, 2022 | 12:29 PM

COUTTS, AB – The mayor of Coutts says being in the village “is kind of like being under siege.”

On Saturday, multiple commercial vehicles lined up near the Canada-U.S. border at Coutts, demanding that COVID-19 health measures be lifted, including a cross-border vaccine mandate for truckers.

READ MORE: Alberta truckers hit provincial roads to support compatriots in Ottawa

READ MORE: Alberta RCMP issue travel advisory for Coutts border crossing

Although the atmosphere has shifted in Coutts, mayor Jim Willett says there’s been “no problems” with protestors.

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Willett told LNN that demonstrators and vehicles were still set up Monday morning, remarking that in the village itself, “there’s strangers wandering the streets and driving around.”

“A lot of the older folks here are a little tense because we’re not used to seeing that many people but all in all, other than the fact that there’s not a lot of coming and going, nothing much has changed in the village.”

He noted that for the last two nights, protestors have had a gathering in the village, but “everything is under control. It’s basically everybody [getting] together, I think, and eats and drinks and talks for a little bit and gives some support to each other and then by 9:30 or so, it’s all quiet.”

On local businesses, Willett said “we don’t have a lot of businesses in town, so it hasn’t impacted us that way.”

The mayor told LNN that he is in contact with the RCMP “on a regular basis and there are things going on,” however, he did not comment further on that.

He did note, though, that the RCMP made arrangements to allow the school bus system to get through to Milk River to drop kids off at school Monday and “they’ve assured that the mail will get here so everybody will get their bills on time.”

Willett said initially, he was told the protest “would be a slow down of traffic.”

“They were going to run the convoy down one lane [of Highway 4], leave the other lane open, they’d go through U.S. Customs, turn around when they were refused [and] come back up through Canadian Customs and go back up the highway and do it again. It was going to be a slow down of traffic.”

He added, “once they put the barricade across the highway and blocked infrastructure, it became another matter. I cannot support that kind of an action. As far as the protest, I have no problems with people protesting. That’s one of the freedoms that we hear so much about is in a democracy, you’re allowed to protest any time you want, but when it comes to taking away transportation and the rights of other people to work, then you’ve crossed a line.”

“I think they’re realizing that, [but] like I said, it’s not in my hands, so we’ll see what happens there.”

Willett said as of Monday morning, Highway 4 remained blocked off around the Milk River area.

“All of our services are in Milk River. That’s the other thing that’s a bit of a concern – grocery stores, gas stations, doctors, all of that is in Milk River, which is about 18 [kilometres] up that highway that’s blocked off.”

He told LNN that the stream of vehicles has decreased, but on Sunday, he spotted about 20 vehicles in the south bound lane of Highway 4 “on the other side of the barricade.”

“I would say that there were 60 [to] 70 on the northbound lanes. Then we have the ones that are stuck on our side here, most of them working trucks are sitting here with their reefers and who knows what’s happening to their loads. There was at one time, a solid stream of trucks.”

The last traffic update from the Alberta RCMP was provided at around 6:30 p.m. Sunday, January 30. Mounties said they continue “to act to preserve the peace and maintain public safety at the Coutts border crossing.”

On Sunday afternoon, Premier Jason Kenney stated that blocking access to and from the border was in violation of the Alberta Traffic Safety Act.

READ MORE: Kenney on Coutts convoy: “This blockade must end”

Shortly after 8 a.m. Monday morning, 511 Alberta noted that southbound Highway 4 at Highway 501, about four kilometres south of Milk River, remained closed due to ‘heavy traffic congestion’.